Picked up some old Metra (and pre-Metra) schedules last weekend at the Great Kane County Train Show, and Metra's growth as a system was clearly evident while doing some "then vs. now" comparisons. Examples:
-It was only a little over a decade ago that just ten trains comprised Metra's SWS schedule. Service has tripled since then, and a schedule dated 4/10/94 marked the beginning of extended service to 179/Orland Park, which was initially served by six of the ten daily trains running at the time...
-BN service was expanded to 68 daily trains effective with the 4/27/86 schedule. This was when the DG Expresses were upgraded to every 20 min. during rush hours, and those schedules have changed very little since then. Route 59 was still three years away, and there were only two AM Naperville expresses, and only ONE in the afternoon! Hard to believe by today's standards. Also, there was a lot more service at Halsted, and on weekends, the last inbound train left Aurora at 8:30pm...
-A Galena Division commuter schedule issued by CNW on 4/24/60 depicted service on what is known today as UP-W. These schedules represented expanded service as well, particularly for the stations east of Wheaton, since the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin had ceased operations three years earlier, and much of the CA&E's old ROW between Elmhurst and Wheaton paralled CNW's triple track main line immediately to the south. Since much of Kane County was still quite rural at the time, many trains terminated at West Chicago, and today's Berkeley station was actually known (for obvious reasons) as Proviso. It's also interesting to note that CNW ran PM rush hour express trains to Wheaton and Glen Ellyn, departing at 1705 and 1708 respectively, almost identical to the trains Metra still runs today...
--Dorian--
